News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

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Friday, January 24, 2014

RTE row: Cops await legal view

NASHIK:
Officials of the Sarkarwada police station are awaiting a legal opinion
on the written complaint filed by Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC)
assistant commissioner (education) Vasudha Kurnawal and zilla Parishad
education officer (primary) R S Mogal on January 3 against the Silver
Oak School for alleged violation of the Right to Education Act.
The education officers have also sought the registration of an FIR, but it has not yet been done.
In the meantime, the 10 students of Silver Oak School issued leaving
certificates for not paying the fees since the past academic year are
still outside the institute. The school had not permitted seven of its
primary students to attend the classes from December 5 at its Sharanpur
branch and three secondary students at its Chandsi branch allegedly due
to non-payment of fees and three students for the past and current
academic years.

The students' parents, who were suspended employees of the school, had
been demanding that their wards be given concession in fees as they were
with institute. From December 5, the students were not permitted inside
the school and have been out since then.
The school authorities have said they had given several reminders to the students for paying fees.
On December 9, Kurnawal, who went to the school based on the complaints
of the parents, was allegedly mistreated by the headmistress. She
submitted a report to the deputy director of education about the alleged
incident. A four-member inquiry committee had been constituted by the
ZP primary education office and it submitted the report to the deputy
director of education report, suggesting that the school be
derecognised.
On January 3, the education officers and MNS MLA
Nitin Bhosale went to the Sarkarwada police station and gave a written
complaint against the school, seeking registration of an FIR.
"We
have sent the complaint letter to the lawyer for legal opinion. We have
not yet received any advice," said police inspector Suraj Sapkale.
Vijay Marsale, one of the parents of the students, said, "The children
are out of school for a month and it is difficult to admit them to some
other institutes during the middle of the academic year. This is
violation of RTE Act. The officials have sought an FIR, but no one has
spoken anything about the children".
Chairman of the school Jesus Lal had told TOI, "Ours is a non-aided minority school and the RTE does not apply to us."
But he was unable to say if the school was a linguistic minority or a religious minority one.
Incidentally, this is the third case in the city where students have
been issued leaving certificates after parents protested against alleged
fee hike by the schools. Parents of the students studying in Rasbihari
International School (RIS) had been protesting against the alleged fee
hike by the institute since April 30, 2012.
They approached the
deputy director of education, T N Supe, who after a prolonged period
formed an inquiry committee and directed the education officers of the
ZP. Following this the panel submitted the report, along with the
revised fee structure, to the deputy director.
In the first week
of February, 2013, the deputy director asked the school to curtail the
fees from Rs 37,200 to Rs 32,2225. But the parents were not satisfied
with it saying that it should be reduced further.
Aggressive
protests, complaints of parents against the alleged harassment by the
school authorities and violation of RTE by the school that issued
leaving certificates to their wards, the intervention of Child Rights
Commission did no good for the parents. The commission heard the case on
April 8, April 23, May 7, June 4 and June 20. It later said that the
matter did not come under their jurisdiction and the students took
admission elsewhere.

The school administration maintained that it was a disciplinary action
and also for non-payment of fees. Later, the school filed a defamation
suit against the parents.
Manager of the school Madhav Deshpande
had said that their school came under the linguistic minority category
and hence the RTE did not apply to them.
"Approximately 100
students had to take admission in other schools. When I took admission
for my son the school did not have any minority certificate. It was
during the hearing by the Child Rights Commission that the school got
the minority certificate," alleged one of the parents, S K Jain.
Vijay Mundaware and his wife, Jayashree, had been protesting against the
alleged illegal and exorbitant fee hike by Ashoka Universal School
following which their wards were issued leaving certificates by the
school for the alleged misbehaviour of their parents.
The parents filed a petition at the HC alleging violation of the Right to Education Act 2005 against the school.

The case kept getting postponed at the Bombay High Court (HC) and
finally some suggestions were given by the judges to the parents like
the children be sent to the school for one year, the parents should go
to the school only on invitation by the institute and they should pay
the remainder of the fees. Since all the suggestions were not acceptable
to the petitioners, no solution could be arrived at and the case was
postponed again. Later, the parents were asked to keep their wards in
the school for a year since the girl was in Class X and abstain from
speaking to the media.

AUS secretary Shrikant Shukla had also told TOI that the school came under the linguistic minority category.
"Since two years, the Mundaware couple were protesting against fee hike
since the (fee) structure was not approved. They also protested against
capitation fee," said one of the parents on conditions of anonymity.
Refuting all the excuses by the schools, assistant director of
education, R R Marwadi said, "RTE applies to every school, even for
minority schools. In case of the FIR against Silver Oak, it is for the
police to take action."